// FILE M-GME-LORE-001 · LORE BIBLE · CHAPTER ZERO
GameStop was modern finance's first meme-driven uprising. One Reddit forum, one chartered analyst in a red bandana, a $2.75B hedge-fund bailout, a US Congressional hearing, a Netflix mini-series, a Hollywood feature, and a broker that turned off the buy button. $GME is the cultural inheritance — fair launch, LP burned, mint revoked, on Ethereum.
parody universe · fan tribute · not financial advice · not affiliated with GameStop Corp · 18+
// ACT II · IGNITION · JANUARY 2021
30x in 18 days. Short interest 140% of float — physically impossible. Then, at 5:11 EST on January 28, the buy button died.
// SIX ACTS · 2019 → ∞
ACT I · 2019 – 2020
Keith Gill — Boston CFA at MassMutual by day, `Roaring Kitty` on YouTube, `u/DeepFuckingValue` on Reddit by night — opens a $53,566 position on GameStop in June 2019.
His thesis is unsexy and structural: short interest exceeds the float — physically impossible. Ryan Cohen (Chewy founder) circles as an activist. COVID makes the discount asymmetric.
13 January 2021: Cohen + 2 Chewy alumni land seats on the GameStop board. The fuse is lit.
ACT II · January 2021
30x in 18 days. Short interest 140% of float. Melvin Capital takes a $2.75B bailout from Citadel + Point72. Citron's Andrew Left publicly capitulates and exits the short business entirely.
Then at 5:11 AM EST on 28 January, NSCC sends Robinhood a $3B deposit-deficit notice. Vlad Tenev's team flips 13 tickers (GME, AMC, BB, NOK, KOSS…) to close-only mode. You couldn't buy.
The 11th Circuit eventually dismisses the antitrust case on the merits. The meme — 'Citadel paid for the buy button' — never dies.
ACT III · February 2021
House Financial Services Committee hearing: Keith Gill, Vlad Tenev, Ken Griffin, Gabe Plotkin, Steve Huffman.
Gill opens with seven words that escape lore and enter monoculture: "I am not a cat." The room laughed. The internet did not.
AOC dismantles Tenev across five hours. The clips loop on YouTube. The institutional defense reads like comedy improv.
ACT IV · March 2021
WSB moderators dilute the GME thesis. The hardcore splits and founds r/Superstonk on 16 March: GME-only, DD-only, no memes.
u/Atobitt drops the 36-page 'House of Cards' naked-short trilogy. u/Criand surfaces the Total Return Swap thesis. 'Archegos was a test run.'
MOASS — the Mother Of All Short Squeezes — is born as cult prophecy. Diamond Hands becomes scripture. Paper Hands becomes heresy.
ACT V · 2021 – 2024
GME drifts $40–$200 for three years. 'Two more weeks' becomes self-mocking. GameStop opens an NFT marketplace on Loopring/Immutable X — $7.2M first week, then a long fade.
DFV posts his last YOLO update on 16 April 2021. Then: nothing. For three years he is a ghost.
ACT VI · May 2024 → ∞
12 May 2024, Sunday night. @TheRoaringKitty posts a single image: a man in a chair, leaning forward. No caption.
By Monday open, GME is +100%, halted 17 times. AMC +308%. The Solana GME token rips 1,900%. Mark-to-market shorts: ~$1B in a single session.
The drip campaign of cryptic tweets — Akira, Code Geass, Wolverine — runs for weeks. On 2 June, the screenshot: $586M position. The saga is not a memory. It is a recurring liturgy.
// DRAMATIS PERSONAE · WHO TIED THE KNOT
Keith Patrick Gill
Hero figure · founder myth · the leaning-forward man
Ryan Cohen
Mentor · outsider chairman · activist whisperer
r/WallStreetBets collective
Greek chorus · meme economy · the body politic
r/Superstonk founders (Mar 2021)
Hardcore cult · true-believer wing · DRS apostles
u/Atobitt
Theologian · House of Cards trilogy · synthetic-share evangelist
Tenev (Robinhood), Plotkin (Melvin), Griffin (Citadel)
Antagonists · the brokerage-hedge axis · 'the suits'
// FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE · APE FOLK-THESES
The five mechanisms apes credit for the squeeze that wouldn't. Take them as folklore unless you've read the trilogy. Take them as evidence if you have.
none of this constitutes financial advice. you can read the apes' DD forever and still be wrong about the trade.
// EXIT · BACK TO THE CULT